How To Choose The Best Pack ‘N Play

Your baby’s sleep schedule doesn’t usually match your daily life schedule. Fortunately, there are portable pack ‘n plays for your baby to have a safe place to sleep or play. At home or on the road.

This guide will help you select the best pack ‘n play for your little one. We have reviewed all the key factors for a good decision. We have especially thought about comfort and safety.

A safe location for your pack ‘n play

The best place would always be within your within your sight at all times. However, that might be something you can’t do, but then think about maybe that if they’re sleeping upstairs, you might want to move them downstairs. Or to the level that you typically are doing care. Just so that it’s at a place that’s more convenient and you’re able to do those visual checks.

The other reason why I think about this is fire. If you were having all your infant sleep upstairs and you are on another level, just think about if a fire were to happen. It’s just another space, some more time that it’s going to take you to go up and try to get that child out of danger and bring them to safety.

So when you enter your room that you were going to be using, it’s important to check where you would want to place your playpen. I think of a three-foot radius around the whole entire playard, you just need to think of things that a child could potentially reach. And since you won’t be most likely watching them the whole entire time that they’re in there, it’s very important for you to make sure it’s safe as possible.

Safety checklist

What is Hanging Above

In the case that you have to put the pack and plain next to the wall, please always to keep in mind what’s hanging on the wall. So if there’s something that is either heavy or loose, that would be something I would remove. Just that is something that would potentially fall and hurt a child when they’re sleeping.

Outlets and Heat

You should cover outlets with child safety guards. The other thing to think about is heat. So if your source of heat is on the wall, then the baseboard heat would be hot to touch. You wanted to make sure it is at least three feet from your pack in play. Because it would be something that your child would potentially be able to touch and then get a burn.

Windows

There are windows with some type of blinds that don’t have any strings available. But if you do, if you do have blinds that do have strings that would be accessible of their children. That’s another reason to keep him away from the pack ‘n play so they’re not within reach. Or at least always make sure that they’re tied up and out of reach. So that would be something that would be accessible to a child.

Doors

So one thing I looked for is bi-fold doors because they are able to get pinches and get their fingers in there. I want to make sure that the playpen is away from. Or else you could get a childproof safety device that could be put at the top of the bi-fold door to prevent the doors from opening. But obviously, the best thing to do would be to pull away from the doors themselves.

Safe set up of your playard

The first thing that you should always do is to get the instructions that came with your pack ‘n play. Read through those and always set them up according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Just make sure that it is safe because all these pieces tend to have a lot of wear and tear. It’s important to maintain them regularly and to replace them if needed.

The first thing that you should look for is to make sure that it’s stable. You want to make sure that your frame seems sturdy. If you ever feel that this frame is loose, and it can’t be tightened, so you need to replace it.

The other thing is, when you have the locking mechanisms and all of the sides, you’d want to make sure that those are all securely locked in place so that those do not buckle when an infant or child is in the pack and play at the time that they’re using it, because that could be a dangerous situation.

The other thing that I always looked for is the mesh itself. If you’re noticing that there are holes in the mesh, you need to replace it. I don’t know the way that you can safely patch that without creating another safety hazard. So, unfortunately, that’s something that you need to replace if that were to happen.

Next we need to check is the pad itself, which is the bottom of your pack ‘n play. Something you should always check is the bottom pad as well because sometimes could be broken. And therefore it also wouldn’t provide a sturdy surface for your child to be sleeping on. So if it happens, you’re not gonna be able to fix it, you need to replace it.

If you want to know more about how to choose and keep your playpen mattress in good condition, I strongly suggest you our expert’s Q&A post.

Next, you should attach firmly the pad to the bottom of the pack ‘n play. You will go to carefully fit the velcro straps of the pad into the bottom to secure it.

Another very important factor each time that you ever use the playard is to make sure that you have all four corners met with the pad, they should be able to. The pad should like completely flat and secured. If those things are not happening, that would be an unsafe sleep surface.

Do you need a sheet for your pack ‘n play?

The sheet is not required, but it is recommended as long as it’s fitting properly. If you put the sheet in place, you will see that the pads still lies flat. The Velcro straps are still being able to secure the pad. And the four corners of the pad meet the corners of the frame, so everything is still a flat and secure surface for your little one.

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